scholarly journals Urbanisation and globalised environmental discourse do not help to protect the bio-cultural legacy of rural landscapes

2021 ◽  
Vol 208 ◽  
pp. 104038
Author(s):  
Andrzej Bobiec ◽  
Jakub Paderewski ◽  
Agata Gajdek
Author(s):  
Simon Morgan Wortham

This chapter evaluates the question of the ‘complex’ in a range of scientific, political and psychoanalytic contexts, asking not only where lines of connection and demarcation occur among specific distributions of meaning, value, theory and practice; but also probing the psychoanalytic corpus, notably Freud’s writings on the notion of a ‘complex’, in order to reframe various implications of the idea that this term tends to resist its own utilisation as both an object and form of analysis. This section establishes connections between three sets of theoretical questions: the common practice of describing modernity and its wake in terms of a drive towards increasing complexity; the meaning and cultural legacy of phrases such as ‘military-industrial complex’ and sundry derivations in the political sphere; and the intricacies and ambiguities subtending the term ‘complex’ within psychoanalytic theory. As a concept that Freud both utilised and repudiated, the provocative power of the term ‘complex’ is linked to the way it thwarts various attempts at systemization (providing nonetheless an apparatus of sorts through which contemporary science, Slavoj Žižek, Noam Chomsky, Freud, Eisenhower, and post-war politics can be articulated to one another).


Author(s):  
Mariane C. Ferme

Out of War is an ethnographic engagement with the nature of intercommunal violence and the material returns of history during and after the 1991–2002 Sierra Leone civil war. The questions raised concern the nature and reckoning of time and reality, fact and fiction; the experience of violence and trauma; the reversibility of perpetrator and victim, friend and enemy; and past, present, and future in the colony and postcolony. The book is a reflection on West African epistemologies and ontologies that contribute to questions in counterpoint with those of international humanitarianism, struggling with the possibilities of truth and quandaries of justice. In the context of massive population displacements and humanitarian interventions, the ethnography traces strategies of psychological, political, and cultural survival and material dwelling in liminal spaces in the midst of the destruction of the social fabric engendered by war. It also examines the juridical creation of new figures of crimes against humanity at the Special Court for Sierra Leone. The Sierra Leone scene, in the aftermath of war, is visualized as a landscape of chronotopes, neologisms that summon the uncertainty of war: the sobel (“soldier by day, rebel by night”), pointing to the instability of distinctions between enemy and friend, or of opposing parties in the war (the rebels of the Revolutionary United Front [RUF] and soldiers in the national army), and the rebel cross, pointing to the possibility that the purported neutrality of the Red Cross masked partisan interests alongside the RUF. Chronotopes also testify to the difficulty of discerning between facts and rumors in war, and they freeze in time collective anxieties about wartime events. Finally, beyond the traumas of war, the book explores the returns of material traces in counterpoint to the more “monumental” presence of Chinese investments in Africa today, and it explores the forgotten sensory history of another China (Taiwan versus the People’s Republic of China) and another Africa inscribed in ordinary agrarian practices on rural landscapes, and in the fabric of domestic life, particularly since the non-aligned movement emerged from the Bandung conference in 1955.


Author(s):  
Maurizio Peleggi

Monastery, Monument, Museum examines cultural sites, artifacts, and institutions of Thailand as both products and vehicles of cultural memory. From rock caves to reliquaries, from cultic images to temple murals, from museums and modern monuments to contemporary artworks, cultural sites and artifacts are considered in relation to the transmission of religious beliefs and political ideologies, as well as manual and intellectual knowledge, throughout thelongue durée of Thailand’s cultural history. Sequenced by and large chronologically along a period of time spanning the eleventh century through to the start of the twenty-first, the eight chapters in this book are grouped into three sections that surface distinct themes and analytical concerns: devotional art in Part I, museology and art history in Part II, and political art in Part III. The chapters can even be read as self-contained essays, each supplied with extensive bibliographic references.By examining the interplay between cultural sites and artifacts, their popular and scholarly appreciation, and the institutional configuration of a cultural legacy, Monastery, Monument, Museum makes a contribution to the literature on memory studies. A second area of scholarship this book engages is the art history of Thailand by shifting focus from the chronological and stylistic analysis of artifacts to their social life—and afterlife. Monastery, Monument, Museum brings together in one volume a millennium of art and cultural history of Thailand. Its novel analysis and thought-provoking re-interpretation of a variety of artifacts and source materials will be of interest to both the specialist and the general reader.


2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 46-58
Author(s):  
Jiří Semrád ◽  
Milan Škrabal

The paper deals with issues connected with the motivation of high school students to participate in activities aimed at professional creative activity and, in this context, issues of environmental influences, especially from school and the family. It is responding to some of the growing efforts of neoliberalism to over individualize creative expression and activities and completely ignore social influences. It also takes into account the cultural legacy of past generations and the sources of creative power that have taken root in society and from which individuals draw and process their inspiration. Presented within are the results of an empirical probe focused on the influence of the social environment on the creative activity of teenagers. The paper follows the relations to the existing body of knowledge on the relationship between social environment and creativity, with an effort to capture the social conditionality of creative performances—to capture their roots. The results of the probe have confirmed the initial hypothesis that the creative efforts of secondary school students taking part in vocational training is based on the social background of the family and school. However, the family influence on the students’ creativity is not as significant as one would expect. It is the indirect effect of the family environment that has a larger influence.


Author(s):  
Frank Graziano

Historic Churches of New Mexico Today is an interpretive ethnography based on fieldwork among hispanic villagers, Pueblo Indians, and Mescalero Apaches. The fieldwork was reinforced by extensive research in archives and in previous scholarship. The book presents scholarly interpretations in prose that is accessible, often narrative, at times lyrical, and crafted to convey the experience of researching in New Mexican villages. Descriptive guide information and directions to remote historic churches are provided. Themes treated in the book include the interactions of past and present, the decline of traditions, a sense of place and attachment to place, the church as a cultural legacy, the church in relation to native traditions, resistance to Catholicism, tensions between priests and congregations, maintenance and restoration of historic buildings, and, in general, how the church as a place and devotion as a practice are important (or not) to the identities and everyday lives of individuals and communities. Among many others, the historic churches discussed in the study include the Santuario de Chimayó, San José de Gracia in Las Trampas, San Francisco de Asís in Ranchos de Taos, the village churches of Mora County, St. Joseph Apache Mission in Mescalero, and the mission churches at Laguna, Acoma, and Picurís Pueblos.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (20) ◽  
pp. 8419
Author(s):  
Anastasia Nikologianni ◽  
Alessandro Betta ◽  
Angelica Pianegonda ◽  
Sara Favargiotti ◽  
Kathryn Moore ◽  
...  

The landscape has been described as a ‘blind spot’ when examined in light of regional strategies. The immense potential of peri-urban and rural hinterlands to counter the climate emergency is therefore also overlooked. The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT)Climate-KIC’s (Knowledge and Innovation Community) System and sustainable Approach to virTuous interaction of Urban and Rural LaNdscapes (SATURN) aims to address this short-sightedness. The reason why we do not see or value the landscape is complex, but part of the problem relates to its multiple ownership, numerous types and scales of conflicting designations, governance structures, policy requirements, and regulatory frameworks. This leads to an approach that is fragmented and sectoral and, therefore, fails to see the bigger picture or recognise the value that the territory has in order to deal with current environmental challenges. With partners from across Europe, the pan-European Orchestrated Ecosystem research project co-funded by EIT Climate-KIC, SATURN aims to develop new integrated strategies which will increase awareness of the capacity of the landscape, which is seen is seen as a vital way to address the deepening climate emergency. SATURN anticipates that the outputs will build capacity across Europe to help nation-states meet the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) and respond to the environmental challenges. This paper, reporting on interim findings, sets out the next phase of the project and concludes with lessons learned so far, including an initial identification of processes that can be applied in regions across Europe and an evaluation of the significance of exchanging knowledge between different countries.


Author(s):  
Jane J. Aggrey ◽  
Mirjam A. F. Ros-Tonen ◽  
Kwabena O. Asubonteng

AbstractArtisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) in sub-Saharan Africa creates considerable dynamics in rural landscapes. Many studies addressed the adverse effects of mining, but few studies use participatory spatial tools to assess the effects on land use. Hence, this paper takes an actor perspective to analyze how communities in a mixed farming-mining area in Ghana’s Eastern Region perceive the spatial dynamics of ASM and its effects on land for farming and food production from past (1986) to present (2018) and toward the future (2035). Participatory maps show how participants visualize the transformation of food-crop areas into small- and large-scale mining, tree crops, and settlement in all the communities between 1986 and 2018 and foresee these trends to continue in the future (2035). Participants also observe how a mosaic landscape shifts toward a segregated landscape, with simultaneous fragmentation of their farming land due to ASM. Further segregation is expected in the future, with attribution to the expansion of settlements being an unexpected outcome. Although participants expect adverse effects on the future availability of food-crop land, no firm conclusions can be drawn about the anticipated effect on food availability. The paper argues that, if responsibly applied and used to reveal community perspectives and concerns about landscape dynamics, participatory mapping can help raise awareness of the need for collective action and contribute to more inclusive landscape governance. These findings contribute to debates on the operationalization of integrated and inclusive landscape approaches and governance, particularly in areas with pervasive impacts of ASM.


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